PM’s symbolic clean-out before the next election

THE sight of new cabinet appointees striding confidently into 10 Downing Street reminds us that reshuffles are mostly symbolic.

Published: 00:01, Wed, July 16, 2014

William Hague was the biggest casualty of the reshuffle[GETTY]

The broad smiles of the winners also remind us perversely that, as Enoch Powell observed, all political lives end in failure.

These triumphant beneficiaries will themselves be cast off one day. That’s what political life is about.

This reshuffle has been seen as David Cameron’s attempt to bring more women into the Cabinet, thus doing something about his perceived longterm problem with women voters in what is now the run-up to the next general election.

It’s difficult to know just how effective this strategy will be as far as the voters are concerned but clearly something had to be done to give a sense of an equal opportunities Government.

They replace ministers who without exception have done a decent job. This is fresh blood rather than blood-letting

This reshuffle has not been nearly as brutal as Harold Macmillan’s “night of the long knives” 52 years ago.

But the Prime Minister wants to give the impression of bringing in new ideas and instilling energy into the Government.